Next Yahoo Executive Shoe–of Many–to Fall?
by Kara Swisher
Posted on June 19, 2007 at 12:53 AM PT
While it’s corporate sport to focus on the ins and outs of the departure of Terry Semel–was he pushed or did he motor out of Yahoo on his own or, the truth, a little of both?–it’s probably a better idea to look at what will come in the days ahead for Yahoo’s ranks.
Sources tell me that now that Sue Decker has ascended to president from running the Advertiser and Publisher Group, that job, as well as the never-filled Audience Group one (announced by Semel in the last reorg in December), will no longer exist. As in, poof, gone!
Executives under those umbrellas will apparently report up through current ranks to Decker.
That is, except the job of tech head–recently vacated by Farzad Nazem and taken over on an interim basis by new CEO and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang–which will report directly to Yang. That’s right, for now, Yang will report to Yang.
But what else? First, I would expect there to be more executive departures.
With the drop-off in the display ad business, for example, one wonders if current Chief Sales Officer Wenda Harris Millard is going to be feeling the pressure from on high. Pictured here, she joined Yahoo around the time Semel got there, bringing a lot of advertising experience to the then-flimsy ad efforts.
While she definitely raised the game at Yahoo, results are results. Also vulnerable is Gregory Coleman, Yahoo’s executive vice president of global sales.
And, it is important to underscore the need to raise morale at Yahoo and attract dynamic new employees. The mood at the company has been, shall we say, glum, and that falls in the purview of Libby Sartain, Chief People Yahoo, an annoyingly cute way of saying she runs human resources. (She is pictured here.)
Now, I don’t find many companies where the HR head is beloved, but Sartain does attract an unusual amount of ire from some in the company for not being as supportive as one might hope.
But the real issue won’t be those leaving with a bit of a push, but those who want to get out while the getting is good. The departure of major execs, shown here, like Marco Boerries (right), the executive vice president of the Connected Life Division, and the more high-profile Jeff Weiner (left), who is executive vice president of its Network Division, would be a blow.
While it is not likely either will bolt soon–and it is critical for Yahoo to hold onto as many top execs as they can right now–they are ripe pickings for any aggressive Internet company looking for leadership.
And what of Brad Garlinghouse, shown here, the man who seemed to set this whole conflagration, when he penned the now legendary “Peanut Butter Manifesto.”
That four-page memo struck a nerve inside and outside the company when it became public late last year, as it called for an overhaul of Yahoo management, a resetting of priorities and pointed out cleverly that the company had spread itself too thin. (Get it? Peanut butter? Spread thin?)
Given his role as the one whose recommendations have seemingly come to pass and then some (”Existing business owners must be held accountable for where we find ourselves today–heads must roll,” he wrote), it’s likely Garlinghouse’s job is pretty sticky.
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Comments
Hi Kara, if this comment annoys you, please delete it. I won’t be offended at all. I like that you offer the disclosure and I think that’s a good thing. I suspect though, the reason that I am the only person to have posted a comment on this entry so far is not a result of anything in that disclosure.
It doesn’t appear that the WSJ has made any real commitment to generate any traffic to article specific content on All Things Digital, whenever there is great synergy and it doesn’t get leveraged, my reaction is, “You HAVE to be kidding me!”. I no longer pay for the WSJ online but do occasionally use the free site. While that site does promote the conference content, there is no linking (that I could find) from today’s blurbs about Yahoo on the free site to your also “freely” available content.
You’re a great writer, with great insight and theoretically your posts should generate a lot of bustle and commenting. That doesn’t appear to be happening, and I think that’s too bad. Your work is both better and much more readable than most of the stuff out there. I think it’s great that WSJ backed the site, but sad they didn’t come up with a strategy for turning it into one of the more vibrant communities.
I know the site is new, and I also know the site had a ton of traffic during the conference, and I’m sure it will build over time with folks like Ted L. giving you and Walt shout outs in his blog, but the lack of synergy between the free WSJ.com content and here seems kind of dopey to me.
Though I am sure you can and hopefully will build traffic organically over time, the synergistic jumpstart from the mother ship couldn’t hurt.
Posted by Robert Seidman at June 19th, 2007 at 5:54 pmHello Robert,
Where have you been? For others, FYI, Robert and I go way back into prehistoric AOL days, when he had a great blog (that’s before there were blogs) about AOL and the online space.
Thanks for the note, and the compliments.
We are working with the Journal and all its arms to better promote the site. We got busy with our conference, but are focused on leveraging and linking now 24/7!
We will also be focused on promoting community. Walt and I decided on a very strict comment policy, since we want a completely civil dialogue, so that might be part of it.
But even though there are not many comments, we are actually getting a surprising amount of traffic, especially given very little promotion (aside from the conference). So the reading and commenting do not seem to relate to each other as much. Odd, but true.
But thanks for your shout out!
And come visit me soon in SF.
Posted by Kara Swisher at June 21st, 2007 at 4:56 pmHi Kara, thank you for the nice message!
I am glad traffic is very good and as I think about your readership it makes some sense to me that they don’t have 2 hours a day to post comments on blogs.
Just a note to anyone who may click on my name and land on a hodgepodge of complete craziness (though the pieces on “Google: People Like You” parts 1 & 2 may be of interest to this crowd). I am involved in a “hobby” with a friend of mine that we’re planning on launching in the fall. I needed to learn all the new tools and the blog you will land on if you click this is just a “practice zone”.
I’m in San Francisco and will definitely visit you!
Robert
Posted by Robert Seidman at June 21st, 2007 at 11:20 pm